Virtually lost amid such U.S. Open plot lines as the enduring excellence of Venus Williams, the incandescent run of Maria Sharapova, the comeback efforts of Petra Kvitova and Sloane Stephens and the rising tide of American women: The No. 1 player in the world is still slugging in Queens.
And she’s looking more dangerous than ever.
Top-seeded Karolina Pliskova swept away Pennsylvania upstart Jennifer Brady with a ruthless 6-1, 6-0 fourth-round thrashing early Monday at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The whole thing took 46 minutes; it took the labor out of Labor Day.
Pliskova’s merciless business-handling was summed up as the 22-year-old Brady, a former UCLA player, served to salvage just one game at 0-5 in the second set. Pliskova, of the Czech Republic, ripped a backhand passing shot for deuce. Her scrambling defense produced an error on Brady’s volley for the advantage, and another scorched backhand gave last year’s U.S. Open runner-up the bagel.
It was an efficient departure from Pliskova’s previous match, a narrow third-round escape against No. 27 seed Shuai Zhang in which she faced a match point, or the tight three-setter in the second round against American qualifier Nicole Gibbs.
“[Those close wins] helped me to go through the tough moments,” Pliskova said in her on-court, post-match interview. “And I played much better.”